Chapter 4: Folk and Popular Culture

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Chapter 4 Folk and Popular Culture

• The Cultural Landscape
• An Introduction to Human Geography

2
Culture

• The combination of three things
• Values
• Material artifacts
• Political institutions
• This chapter deals with material artifacts

3
Material Culture

• Two basic categories folk and popular culture
• Folk culture
• Traditionally practiced by small, isolated,
  homogeneous groups in rural areas
• Popular culture
• Characterized by large, heterogeneous groups of
  people who share common habits despite
  differences in other personal characteristics
• Geographers are interested in two aspects of
  culture
• Where cultures are located in space
• How cultures interact with the environment

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Where Do Cultures Originate and Diffuse?

• Origin of folk and popular cultures
• Folk culture hearth area originators are
  usually unknown
• Popular culture hearth area comes from more
  developed countries (MDCs)
• People in MDCs have disposable income and leisure
  time that allow for these innovations

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Where Do Cultures Originate and Diffuse?

• Origin of folk and popular music
• Folk music characteristics
• Tells a story or recounts important life events
  or activities
• Is personal in nature
• Popular music characteristics
• Written by individuals for the purpose of selling
  to a large audience
• Highly technical

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Popular Music Map
Figure 4-2
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Hip-Hop Map
Figure 4-3
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Where Do Cultures Originate and Diffuse?

• Diffusion of folk and popular culture
• Folk culture diffuses slowly, primarily through
  migration, and at a small scale
• Example Diffusion of Amish culture
• Popular culture diffuses rapidly, via
  hierarchical diffusion, and over a large scale
• Example Sports

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Distribution of Amish
Figure 4-4
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Iroquois Lacrosse
Figure 4-5
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Why Is Folk Culture Clustered?

• Influence of the physical environment
• Folk culture close connection to the
  environment
• Most folk cultures are rural and agricultural
• Clothing is often tied to environmental
  conditions
• Example Wooden clogs in the Netherlands
• Folk cultures can ignore environmental conditions

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Why Is Folk Culture Clustered?

• Influence of the physical environment
• Food preferences and the environment
• Food preferences are adapted to the environment
• Example In Asia, rice is grown in milder, wetter
  environments whereas wheat is grown in colder,
  drier environments
• Food taboos may be especially strong
• People avoid certain foods because of negative
  associations with that food
• Terroir the sum effects of the local
  environment on a particular food item

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Istanbul Vegetable Garden
Figure 4-6
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Swine Stock
Figure 4-8
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Why Is Folk Culture Clustered?

• Influence of the physical environment
• Folk housing and the environment
• Housing a reflection of cultural heritage,
  current fashion, function, and the physical
  environment
• Two most common building materials wood and
  brick
• Minor differences in the environment can produce
  very different house styles

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House Types in Four Western Chinese Communities
Figure 4-9
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Why Is Folk Culture Clustered?

• Isolation promotes cultural diversity
• Examples
• Himalayan art
• Beliefs and folk house forms
• Sacred spaces
• U.S. folk housing

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Hearths of House Types
Figure 4-12
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Why Is Popular Culture Widely Distributed?

• Diffusion of popular housing, clothing, and food
• Popular culture varies more in time than place
• Food customs consumption of large quantities of
  snack foods and alcohol
• Clothing styles reflect occupation rather than
  environment
• Housing reflects fashion trends since the 1940s
  in the United States

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Consumption of Canadian Whiskey and Tequila
Figure 4-14
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U.S. House Types (19451990)
Figure 4-16
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Why Is Popular Culture Widely Distributed?

• Electronic diffusion of popular culture
• Watching television
• The most popular leisure activity in MDCs
• Diffusion from the United States to the rest of
  the world 50 years
• The Internet
• Diffusion from the United States to the rest of
  the world 10 years

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Diffusion of TV
Figure 4-18
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Diffusion of Facebook
Figure 4-21
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Why Does Popular Culture Cause Problems?

• Threats to folk culture
• Loss of traditional values
• Media imperialism
• Satellites
• Limit to government control of information

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Why Does Popular Culture Cause Problems?

• Environmental impact of popular culture
• Modifying nature
• Golf courses
• Uniform landscapes
• Negative impacts
• Increased demand for natural resources
• Pollution

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Golf Courses
Figure 4-24
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The End.

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